As I wrote a while ago, it has been ages since a German youth national team lost a match to Italy, on all levels that is (U16-U21), competitive match or friendly. This has to have an effect on the senior team in the long run, too.

blutgraetsche wrote:As I wrote a while ago, it has been ages since a German youth national team lost a match to Italy, on all levels that is (U16-U21), competitive match or friendly. This has to have an effect on the senior team in the long run, too.

blutgraetsche wrote:As I wrote a while ago, it has been ages since a German youth national team lost a match to Italy, on all levels that is (U16-U21), competitive match or friendly. This has to have an effect on the senior team in the long run, too.

agree, this will hopefully ban some complexes out of there head

who cares

so what if Germany overcome their Italy-phobia thanks to Sammer's work on ground level

Löw and Siegenthaler have managed to create a new German Angstgegner instead

SPAIN

"Argentinien hat Messi; Spanien hat 5-6 Messis"

my main question is now whether HOLLAND can manage to overcome Die Mannschaft and build a psychological advantage as well

Agree that Rolfes shouldn't make the final Euro squad. The same applies to Cacau. I probably wouldn't even pick more than six defenders and hence leave all of the rather mediocre (or worse) Aogo, Schmelzer and Träsch behind. I'd rather pick an additional midfielder. The good thing about our defenders is that they are all very versatile.

In the midfield, it's the Bender twins and Holtby for me. Going by that goal.com article, that's how the squad would look like:

blutgraetsche wrote:Agree that Rolfes shouldn't make the final Euro squad. The same applies to Cacau. I probably wouldn't even pick more than six defenders and hence leave all of the rather mediocre (or worse) Aogo, Schmelzer and Träsch behind. I'd rather pick an additional midfielder. The good thing about our defenders is that they are all very versatile.

In the midfield, it's the Bender twins and Holtby for me. Going by that goal.com article, that's how the squad would look like:

Oh dear I agree entirely. Could argue it's a bit light at left-back given that Badstuber is hardly a decent option there, but if neither Aogo nor Schmelzer improves substantially it's a decision worth taking for the reasons you mention. I expect Jogi will be more conservative and leave out Holtby and possible a Bender for another defender (s) though.

There are usually unforeseen surges/losses of form in the second half of the season though so not done and dusted yet. And let's hope injuries don't hit too badly – last time the squad was pretty much decided by the ones who got injured in the bigger squad dropping out.

Fuck it, might as well chuck Adler or ter Stegen in there instead of Wiese

So essentially the squad you want has 2 strikers, 6 defenders and 12 midfielders - do you really need that many options in midfield?..Surely there's a superfluous Bender* or two there. You'd essentially be picking 4 from 6, 5 from 12 and 1 from 2. Is it worth risking not having at least an extra mediocre defender in order to incorporate your 11th/12th talented young midfielder? I can envision scenarios where 3 of your defenders are ruled out (it's happened to England!), but not 6 midfielders, if ya see what I mean - or can some of these midfielders cover defence as well?

*yes, I did mainly just write this to incorporate the phrase 'superfluous Bender'